Voice Introduces A New Experience: The Creative Mindset!

Hello folks, all people of creative writing, business and technological worlds may consider my today’s theme of discussion of exceptional importance or somewhat advanced. Nevertheless, no matter how much beginner or advanced someone is, or something, whom you speak to and (as always) what or whom do you think you’ll find (that is both irony and approbation) there can be explanation of the title of this post, depending on how it is presented. Voice will be a catapult…

In order to speak, we need a voice. Characters both in novels and screenplays are being judged by their authenticity and uniqueness, implying the matching of words with actions which is pictured through their voice. This applies to business world as well. When dealing with marketing or technology we wonder: marketing according to whom? According to how it is presented at college? According to what the applied business world urges based on the production system? According to what the world or the public opinion poses in order to influence more? And when dealing with the triad creative – marketing – technology, how does one dimension affect the other, if combined? Isn’t it true that the writer or the individual markets his ideas, experiences and world view and his behavior (better or worse) in specific spacetimes?

So, let’s analyze the above! An individual, that is a character, a writer or a professional will be parameterized on lots of denominations: age, gender, education, profession, interests, experiences, politics or religion, vision, stage of evolution, relational potential, entertainment tastes and if further applied, principles and value systems. One very important aspect we, you, have to know before being trapped is that systems drive behavior meaning that whatever you sow, you reap… The speech of a Greek artist in TEDx was entitled that you have to “Create skies if you want to see stars”. So, metaphorically, as usually, (that is both an irony and approbation) the skies are many… But if we can all agree to archetypal considerations, this means commonalities for all people, we can learn better and perform better when it comes to the dimensions described.

The picture above portrays sound waves, hence the product of synthesis has to be clearly defined and understood if it is to be applied, schematically, to the creative writing, marketing and technology arenas… As a first observation, I consider it has great perturbational value. As a writer, our characters have to be unique, authentic and with a crystal-clear shape of story arc. This is what characterization means, for books and screenplays. All matter is pulled by the gravity of the world that it comes from, and not any other. This implies a clear identification of filtering a product of many voices, nevertheless it leaves at the mercy of God novice individuals, ‘little boys’ and ‘little girls’ who may not yet possess ‘the mechanisms’ to defend against the brutal reality of the 21st century.

Little by little though I have outlined character structure and as you know, the available themes in literature and cinema can be many. Exactly the same analysis is applied to marketing and technology. First things first. In order to do marketing, you need a product. Price, promotion and marketplaces, are shaped around the tangible reality of a specific product or a specific service. But at the center of the markets of Western capitalism lay consumers, individuals, humans… So, applying what has been mentioned above, shouldn’t there be demographics, profiles and psychographics for market analysis exactly as a writer defines character structures? They exist since the dawn of marketing.

So far, I described quite analytically the independent dimensions creative, marketing, technology, but I have not yet discussed how the one affects the other. Affection though is complicated and indirect. First things first. A few observations of mine in the internet. Having witnessed the web since 2007, there are occasions of people swelling, inflating the world of others and presenting it as accomplishments, or applying previously reported failures, bloody massacres only to prove better. In a world where what matters most is not what we’re alike at, but at what we differ (including extra-terrestrial intelligence), originality is important. These strategies won’t fail from day one. But in leadership there is comparative evaluation. They fail as being part of somebody else’s strategy and not your own strategy. The swelling of ‘your neighbor’ but not your own.

Hence there is a raw material for everyone, proving that the rights and the mistakes are very specific and common for everyone. Geographical restrictions or liberation, individuals following international standards and not acting like localists, thinking globally and acting locally, may prove differences in subject matter. May create a Greek artist following his Hollywood passion. May borrow themes from abroad. May engage in literature without borders. May quest bibliographical and technological research to create a network. And they make people understand better the digital reality of the 21st century. A world where pioneering science and AI, marketing, technology and creativity dance all together at the perturbational universe described at the photo above. Have a great time folks!

One Size Doesn't Fit All: The Creative Mindset!

The Disruptors - Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon

Dear folks, there's been a long journey of over a decade to come up with a version of materials, creative projects and social networks so I believe now it's time to think I am at a crossroads of where to go with my creativity. Before that happens I would like to talk today about the entire pack of book publishing, digital marketing and meteoric technology know hows. If we were freshmen in the university or if we had to give advice to our younger versions of self and this little guy got to know of memoirs dealing with Amazon, social networks, Apple approved aggregators with books, plenty of academic testimonials and creativity driven from the top, this guy would feel the king of the world... Reality is much more different but much more promising as well as it's true that at that ages we may lack analytical thinking on the issues above, moreover, quantifying our decision making. 

 

Getting started with my own paradigm, book launch in Amazon is enough for the company to copy the file and distribute it all around the world where the company has sites and offices and that's the first exposure of the writer towards global understanding. Nevertheless there are dozens of people and networks involved to bring a project to life. The writer, the writing consultants: story consultant and proofreader, the intellectual property offices, the graphic designers to master the digital files' approval, UK and USA digital distribution companies, networks to get a beautiful book cover that will be fine with your psychology, ISBNs from The National Library of Greece, "find" all the above networks in terms of affordable costs or being free, markets' approvals at the end, do you believe I am complete with the above? Not even the double of it! Planning a book launch, comes with planning your web presence including an entire pack of digital marketing activities. 

 

Thinking of a writer's web page, thinking of a Facebook page, thinking of Facebook banners, thinking of engines that shorten URLs, thinking of photos and campaign materials, thinking of podcasts, if you think of podcasts then you come up with free text to speech software, then comes sound recording, so, what's next? Afterwards you could possibly seek author interviews and getting familiar with digital PR that some of them come up with larger networks promoting your work. Advice with Twitter followers and, if you're lucky enough getting book reviews. Nevertheless, book reviews are not the singular reason that the entire success of your book pass through as it's important to consider what sort of validation you ask. A novel? A screenplay? An essay? Poetry? So, who's responsible for the previous? Quite often, book reviews from the crowd are being considered far from industry validation such as a publishing house approval, movie approval or foreign rights...! It just helps with sales...

 

Now, in terms of the validation mentioned, are the issues presented above the single dimension of where your creative success and fulfillment depend on? If someone writes a screenplay, you have to consider script coverage (meaning, professional evaluation) from accredited artistic organizations and get to know things beforehand and afterwards related with the movie industry. Reading books, getting to know the ecosystem of cinema, experimenting at your blog. If you're writing philosophy or if your book is thematic and it's not literature then this is a field of subject matter experts. What the heck are you writing in the end?  OK you wrote it and it's ready to get published. If you have deep pockets you may consider book events but I believe this goes hand in hand with what kind of validation you seek, as stated above. Are you truly familiar with how the above activities work, or do you believe you will get stuck at somewhere, proving that in the 21st century educational backup is more than necessary? And how far are you willing to go in terms of writing your memoir by acknowledging that what's most important is an alignment with "management", "experience" and "company profiles"?

 

Now let's get deeper to tougher considerations. When it comes to the campaigns described, perhaps setting up Google My Business, the hunt to come up with an article 24 hours per day and much much more personal work as it is described above, that perhaps you knew nothing, not even a hint of it 2 years ago and you have to discover everything through specialized Google queries, how much time and effort are you willing to invest? Are you willing to align your creative life with the rest of your life? And if so, are there problems being confronted? Have you truly acknowledged that the 4 industry disruptors of the 21st century that is Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook make it clear cut that not even the half of us know where something truly begins and where it truly ends? What about technology upheavals and AI? Familiar with the science of how big data and what actually sells in the internet work? Interested to go the extra mile and get solid foundations with science if the starving artist syndrome is not your type and you're truly interested in career building? A case for all of us or some?

 

OK then, you say, I'm starting to get the big picture so this means I have a solid understanding of what my options are, what market research says and how I will proceed with my opportunities and decision making. But having to consider a balance between work life and personal life, where books may be something completely extra, considering that success is also making money, your first concern deals with career management. Are all of us doing the same, or familiar technological jobs? So if not, is the above a work worth doing? How fast and for how long? Remember, these mean nothing yet! John's Revelation fastly approaches! Never ever engage in activities or the internet without a strategy. If you think that with your first or your second book you're gonna make a living, forget it. Willing to adapt a book into a screenplay? Have you found this one, unique, diamond company that makes it with the lowest cost possible? 

 

Are you willing to invest in quantity and not just quality to make it happen? But when? How fast are you willing to work? Since you're not getting paid, are you aware that slowness is not an advantage? Familiar with what global presence truly means and how to deal with foreign companies in general? Aware that this may mean hundreds of emails with the companies, your consultants and your options to get to know how things work, or even worse, get to know things you're not aware of including reading dozens of articles in the internet related with the industry? Do you consider yourself a perfect user of PCs and the internet? How good are you with the ecosystem of websites if creative concerns or problems arise? Where does art start or end and where does the business side of things continue? And so far, you may be familiar with nothing in terms of opening accounting books in the future to support your work legally and safely. Isn't this an ambitious, bold and extremely risky step that you shall not consider away from an employee - boss relationship? How does your character correlate with that? When making money with your art then you come up to the conclusion that money, dates and time matter more than usual. And what if you can't focus to complete many projects in the long term or if focus and writing a lot seems difficult?

 

So far you must be perfectly aware of that success and effectiveness as a writer started for you as mere inspirations and joy of writing paragraphs and discussing your art in the internet, but it continued with confronting completely different, complex and fuzzy issues that do not care about what a business card of yours writes. You come up with other concerns and other professions. There are a lot of people in history who decided they are creators and not economists. They are artists and not technocrats, publishers or business people. Some of them failed, were deceived and some of them still have nothing to do with the dynamic profile of this article. For them it's simply that the internet or digital marketing is not an issue, not dare to mention about science and AI, they're just others. OK, now we're getting closer to the truth and solid arguments but when it comes to the internet there is a quote: Think Global, Act Local. Don't you think the term "international" is quite heavy? And what exactly does it mean to go beyond borders? Willing to discover that to succeed it means you will find yourself investing in a decade of creativity as no writer solves his problems with his first book? Proficient in the English language and moreover, with professional standards?

 

Personally speaking, I have found myself in the middle of dozens of theorizations, analyses, book readings and book evaluations, but more importantly I have found myself analyzing, deciding and generating arguments in a sense that ordinary people CAN'T. Conclusively, now we realize that to innovate, create and pioneer in book publishing and the internet in the 21st century involves dozens of non-linear activities if compared with mere art. So that's the exact reality of what it means to survive in the world of the 4 disruptors, these are Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. In a world where money doesn't bring happiness but it surely helps to get things done in the long term. Have a great time folks!